Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: First few chapters are rather slow. Sorry about that, but I really wanted to set everything up and not just jump in and have nothing make any sense at all. Suppose now would be a good time to mention that this will be eventual Snarry. The first people Harry will meet and befriend will be the Marauders, making the interactions with Snape all that much more interesting in my opinion. ) Also, my apologies on the last chapter being so short.
Now, on to the reason you're really here.
Pain. That was the first thing Harry Potter felt upon waking up. Pain induced by the worst migraine he could recall suffering through. It was then he realized this was the only migraine he could recall suffering through. As a matter of fact, try as he might, the only thing he could remember, apart from his own name, was a man in a mask and long black robes casting a spell at him resulting in him falling forcefully against more than a dozen hourglass looking figures.
Harry slowly opened his eyes and looked around at the room he was in. Looking around, he noted that numerous potions lined tall stone walls and there several beds identical to his on either side of him. He had a feeling that he had been there before, but still could not figure out exactly where he was.
"Ah, I see you've finally woken up," he heard a middle-aged female voice say. He quickly turned his head, which turned out to be a very bad idea due to his migraine, to get a look at the woman addressing him. "How do you feel?"
In response, Harry put a hand to his forehead and muttered something about "make it go away."
The woman chuckled. "A headache, then?" Harry nodded slowly. "Anything else hurt?" After a moment, he shook his head. "Very well. Take this potion for your headache. I'll be back in a moment." She handed a potion to Harry and exited the room.
He was only alone for a few minutes before the witch returned with and elderly man following closely. The woman went into her office attached to the infirmary while the old man moved closer to Harry.
"Would you mind if I took a seat?" he asked politely. Harry shook his head. He looks so familiar, Harry thought. But who is he?
The older man gazed at the younger one for a few moments before asking, "How's your head doing?"
"Better."
"Thats good, then."
"Dumbledore," the raven haired youth said abruptly. "Is that your name?"
The older man looked quizzically at the boy sitting in front of him. "Yes," he answered slowly. "But I'm afraid I have yet to learn your name."
"I'm Harry Potter."
"Yes, you look as though you would be related to the Potters," Dumbledore said, more to himself than to the boy sitting in front of him.
The youth opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but seemed to change his mind at the last moment and closed it.
"Something you wanted to say, my boy?"
After a moment more of indecision, he asked "Where am I?"
"You don't know?" The boy shook his head. "You are at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Sound familiar?" He nodded silently. "And would you be able to tell me how you came to be on the grounds of Hogwarts?"
Harry sighed. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't remember."
"I see," Dumbledore said heavily. "What do you remember?"
"A room with a bunch of hourglass looking things; A man shooting a spell at me. That's really all."
Dumbledore looked deeply into the young boy's eyes. Harry felt something in his mind, it was as though someone were probing around looking for something. Finally, the old man sighed and said, "Very well. Madam Pomfrey is give you a few potions to try and retrieve your memory. Like most potions, they take a little while to "kick in", shall we say. Today happens to be the last day of O.W.L. examinations for fifth years. If you like, seeing as you have no physical impairments, you are welcome to attend dinner in the Great Hall. However, if you would prefer to simply have some food brought to you here in the hospital wing, that can most certainly be accommodated."
Harry nodded once again and the elder wizard left the room. Almost as soon as the door clicked shut behind him, three boys around the age of fifteen appeared out of thin air in the corner of the room and rushed to Harry's bed.
"Blimey, James!" one said to the other. "He looks exactly like you!"
"I know! It's amazing! Think about it! He could be a fifth Marauder!"
"So come on, tell us the truth," the directed their attention to Harry. "How'd you manage to end up in the middle of the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night, anyway?" Their eyes danced with excitement at the prospect of mischief.
Harry sighed. "I really don't remember."
"Oh come on now! We won't tell the old codger," Harry's look-alike pressed.
Harry's frown deepened. "I seriously don't remember anything."
He looked like he wanted to press for more, but the one that had yet to speak interrupted him. "Don't pester him, James. If he says he doesn't remember, he doesn't remember. I'm Remus Lupin." He held his hand out for Harry to shake.
"Harry Potter," he replied as the shook the boy's hand.
"Nice to meet you. And these two idiots are my friends, Sirius Black and James Potter. Speaking of which, where did Peter go?"
"I dunno," James replied. "Was probably too chicken to come with us."
"How did you all get in here?" Harry asked them.
James and Sirius grinned wickedly as Remus rolled his eyes. James held up his cloak to him. "It's an Invisibility Cloak. Been in my family for ages. We hid under it and followed Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore in. After that we just had to play the quiet game until he left."
Harry gazed at the cloak for the few seconds that James spoke. Just like the room, it seemed to spark some sort of familiarity, but he couldn't quite place it.
"So, any ideas where you'll be staying for the summer?" Sirius asked.
"No, Dumbledore didn't say anything about where I'd be saying. The closest he came to talking about my future was whether or not I would come to dinner tonight."
"We heard," Sirius said mischievously.
"You mean they're going to let you out? You only just woke up and Madam Pomfrey is going to let you leave so soon?" James asked incredulously. "That crazy bat never lets anyone out until she's checked them over a thousand times. Prepare yourself for a the endurance test of your lifetime."
Harry smiled for the first time since he woke up.
"Mr. Potter! What are you doing in this infirmary?!" The medi-witch came screeching into the room.
"See you at the feast tonight, Harry," Sirius said as they made their getaway.
"Really! You'd think they'd have the decency to give people they're privacy!" the witch muttered to herself as she moved toward Harry with a small vial in hand. She handed Harry the potion and watched him drink it before heading back into her office.
A few hours later, both Harry and Pomfrey were disappointed to find out that potions had no effect whatsoever. "Those potions are the strongest memory reviving potions I have in stock," Madam Pomfrey said, half to herself and half to Harry. "If those didn't bring back the faintest memory, then nothing in St. Mungos will either."
Eventually, she allowed Harry to leave the hospital wing for dinner. At first, Harry was worried that he wouldn't be able to find his way there, but soon discovered that knew exactly where he was going.
"Harry!" a voice called from the furthest table. "Over here!" Harry looked over and realized it was James calling to him, so he set off in that direction. Apparently, however, he was not moving fast enough for some people as a boy with greasy black hair shoved past him, almost sending him to the ground.
"Watch where you're going, Potter," the boy mumbled, barely audible.
"Oi, Snivellus," James and Sirius came running over. "What the hell was that for?"
The boy looked between James and Harry several times with his cold, black eyes before hiding his confusion behind a mask of indifference, then shrugged and went down and set down at another table. Harry continued to stare at him. Looking at this boy, for some reason, Harry felt the strongest sense of familiarity that he had felt yet. For this reason, he almost went and sat down next to him.
"Harry, come on," Sirius broke him out of his reverie.
"Oh, yeah." Harry jogged a few steps to catch up with James and Sirius and followed them to their table.
Harry sat down next to them and started to fill his plate. James and Sirius instantly began introducing him to everyone else at the Gryffindor table.
"This is Jacob Wood, he's the Keeper on our House Quidditch team. You do know what Quidditch is, right?"
The name sounded familiar to Harry and figured that perhaps if he saw Quidditch in action, he would remember all he needed to so he nodded that he did and James continued.
"And that beauty over there is Lily Evans. She's got the hots for me and will be asking me out any day now," James said with an air of confidence that Harry couldn't help but chuckle. "Think I'll make it easy on her and do it myself. Oi, Evans! You wanna go out with me?"
Lily excused herself from her friends calmly and strode over to James and Harry. "Potter," she began in a sickly sweet voice. "I've told you once, I'll tell you again. I would not go out with you if you were the last man on Earth and every hippogriff in the world was taken."
At this, Harry and Sirius both burst out laughing. Lily glanced over at them and did a double take when she saw Harry. "Oh, Merlin. Not another one," she mumbled.
"Yup, another one," James said proudly. "Turned up on the grounds this morning. He'll be going to stay with me this summer."
"I will?" Harry asked. No one had mentioned that to him.
"Of course you will. Just as soon as I manage to get Dumbledore alone to ask him about it. You're obviously related to me, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince him."
Harry smiled, shook his head, and turned back to his food as Lily walked off back to her own friends. "So, any day now, huh, James," he smirked.
"Oh, she'll come around."
"Of course she will."
"Now, now, Harry, don't go dashing all of James's dreams. He's been out for her since the first day of school in our first year. And she's been just as keen to stay away from him since then, too," Sirius informed him.
"Almost six years and the poor bloke still hasn't given up," Remus said teasingly.
"So, who was that guy you almost got in a fight with?" Harry asked.
"Snivellus," James rolled his eyes. "His name is Severus Snape. Most annoying bastard here."
Harry turned to get a glimpse of Snape. He saw the boy with his head down, some other boy with long, platinum blond hair talking to him.
"So," Remus began before James and Sirius could go into an hour-long rant about how much they hated Severus. "Has Dumbledore said anything about your whereabouts this summer?"
"Not yet."
"Like I said earlier, I could probably get the headmaster to let you stay with me for the summer. It'd probably be awful boring sitting at Hogwarts all summer long. Do you think you'll be going to classes with us next year?" James said excitedly.
"I don't know."
"Well, why don't we go ask him." James stood up and began to walk toward to professor's table.
"Headmaster," James began. "If it's alright, may we have a word please?"
Dumbledore looked at James through his half moon spectacles. "I believe I know what your question will be, Mr. Potter. I have a few things to sort out before it can be determined where the boy will be this summer. If both of you will kindly meet me in my office around seven-thirty this evening, I have a few questions for Harry, then your questions may be answered.
James grinned. "Thank you,sir." The boys went back to their table and James told everyone else what Dumbledore had said. The rest of the meal was spent discussing the possible outcome of the meeting.
"Well, it's entirely possible that Dumbledore will want him to stay here. After all, he's got his own family somewhere that's probably wondering about him--"
"Remus, he's related to me!" James exclaimed. "My family would probably be able to figure out who his parents are in five minutes flat!"
"True," Remus conceded. "What would you rather do, Harry?"
"Well, I wouldn't mind going to over to James's place--"
"Then it's as good as settled," Sirius interrupted. "I'll probably be coming by at some point in the summer. I'll make sure to annoy my parents enough in the first few weeks so they're dying to get rid of me and I can come earlier."
Dinner finally started to come to a close and students began trickling out the doors to head back to their common rooms.
Harry followed the Marauders out to the grounds where they goofed off until it was time for James and Harry to meet Dumbledore.